SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Hunter-gatherers in the Philippines who adopt farming work around ten hours a week longer than their forager neighbours, a new study suggests, complicating the idea that agriculture represents progress. The research also shows that a shift to agriculture impacts most on the lives of women.
[...] Every day, at regular intervals between 6am and 6pm, the researchers recorded what their hosts were doing and by repeating this in ten different communities, they calculated how 359 people divided their time between leisure, childcare, domestic chores and out-of-camp work. While some Agta communities engage exclusively in hunting and gathering, others divide their time between foraging and rice farming.
The study, published today in Nature Human Behaviour, reveals that increased engagement in farming and other non-foraging work resulted in the Agta working harder and losing leisure time. On average, the team estimate that Agta engaged primarily in farming work around 30 hours per week while foragers only do so for 20 hours. They found that this dramatic difference was largely due to women being drawn away from domestic activities to working in the fields. The study found that women living in the communities most involved in farming had half as much leisure time as those in communities which only foraged.
Also, hunting comes with beer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 22 2019, @12:48PM (4 children)
Back when I was salaried, I got assigned to a project that was planned to require significant overtime continuously over about a 7-month period, and thanks to the laws governing overtime those didn't apply to techies like myself. When I asked my boss what I should expect to get as a reward for that kind of effort, I was told that I would get to keep my job.
A few months after that project was completed, and my boss's prediction proved completely accurate (he was a decent fellow enforcing absolutely boneheaded policies) I joined the exodus of tech staff. Nowadays, I work hourly, also for basically the same reason, and can definitely confirm that it's a lot more pleasant to work long hours when there's money flowing into your bank account as you do it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday May 22 2019, @01:43PM (3 children)
I have to ask why you (and the rest of the tech staff) stuck around in the first place? I mean the boss flat out tells you not to expect any reward for all that overtime, and you all wait until the project is done and he conclusively proves it to jump ship? Do you all have a lot of experience with receiving substantially greater rewards than promised? Or had they previously earned your loyalty well enough for you to see them through the rough patch before you left?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 22 2019, @05:16PM
The first time or two you run into that kind of thing you might not have any other irons in the fire. After that you learn to never not have two or three others ready to go.
It's the main reason I support national health care, because when you have a family and kids you can't afford to have your coverage interrupted because you change jobs.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 22 2019, @06:38PM (1 child)
1. This was right in the middle of the big recession, and I don't live in Silicon Valley or other places where techies are in ridiculous demand, so I didn't want to jump ship without the next ship available. I could have lasted for a while from my savings but did not see any benefits to doing so.
2. When you're working long hours, the amount of available time to job-hunt is limited.
3. Companies in the middle of stuff like this are also too busy to hire anybody new, so had I jumped then that would have resulted in my colleagues having to put in even more time to cover my absence, also for no reward. They're decent folks who deserved better than that.
4. Yes, they had created a fairly good work environment prior to that. It all began to go very wrong after a shift in management 3 levels above me, when somebody who had run 2 of the company's brands into the ground for 8-figure losses somehow secured a promotion and immediately started firing all the competent people. A couple years ago, she had managed to run her 9-figure division into the ground and it was folded under someone else's authority. A couple of weeks ago, everybody who was still left in that division was fired.
There are some circumstances I'd be running rather than walking for the exits: You ask me to do something illegal, for instance. But in this case, I strolled out rather than ran out.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday May 23 2019, @03:17PM
Where do you live?
I'm curious because I'm getting tired of living in the big city. It's been fun and all, but now I'm pining for the big open spaces again and the blessed peace and quiet. The trouble is, when there are not that many tech opportunities around situations like the one you're describing seem particularly nettlesome. It's easy to feel trapped. It's good to have options, especially when we're in an industry as volatile as tech, but there aren't that many when you move out from hubs like Silicon Valley or NYC.
Just generally curious how other Soylentils have negotiated tech careers in more rural areas.
Washington DC delenda est.